Farewell to another fair week

Despite some big crowds, heat and humidity and a last-minute windstorm kept the seven-day fair from surpassing the 2011 turnout.

Dean Cousino

The 2012 Monroe County Fair didn?t break any attendance marks this year, but it did produce plenty of surprises and challenges.

Amost no week of rain, big crowds for the demolition derby and monster truck shows and plenty of heat and humidity that taxed both animals and volunteers.

The fair ended on a sour note, though, Saturday night when a severe thunderstorm warning for the county forced closing down the grounds a couple of hours earlier than planned. Fair officials huddled together early in the night after receiving warnings of possible storms from the sheriff?s department and radar.

About 9:30 p.m. , the fair broadcast on its public address system that a storm was approaching from the west and was moving in the fair?s direction, said Stan Diroff, a member of the fair board. Many people heard the announcement and quickly left for their vehicles as strong winds began buffeting the fairgrounds. There were a few raindrops, but not the downpours that Toledo and other areas to the west had gotten.

?We saw on the weather forecast that the showers were coming and that the storm was on the Lenawee County line,? Mr. Diroff said during Sunday?s big cleanup. ?Our responsibility is to warn them and we did make a general announcement to let them know.?

He said both the 4-H Activity Center and the Monroe Bank & Trust Expo Center were used as shelters for visitors who wanted to get in out of the wind.

?These are our primary shelters for severe weather,? Mr. Diroff said.

Some people did go into the two buildings, but both were already full. The annual end-of-the-week 4-H Celebration Dance was in progress in the dining hall after having been moved indoors because of earlier weather watches. And the Expo Center was still full of exhibitors who were tearing down their booths.

The midway was shut down about 9:30 p.m. and many vendors were already dismantling their booths. The combine demolition derby, which started at 7, was speeded up and finished about 8:30, Mr. Diroff said.

?We made it go faster, but we still had a full show,? he said.

By the time the weather warning was announced, ?about 98 percent of the fair was over,? Mr. Diroff said. The National Weather Service issued an all-clear at 10:30, he said.

Despite the early shutdown and problems with 90-degree readings the final four days, the fair had a pretty good week, he said.

A total of 20,745 people came through the gates on Saturday, down from the 21,117 people who passed through on the final day of the 2011 fair. Saturday?s turnout brought the total attendance for the seven-day fair to 165,503. That was 5,049 fewer patrons than the 170,552 visitors who came last year and ranks sixth on the all-time attendance list at the fair. The record for the fair is 179,109 in 2010, when Eric Church and Randy Houser played at the fair and the Super Kicker Rodeo were featured.

Saturday was the final time to see ?Calvin Knievel,? ?Moses,? and the other high-jumping rescued dogs do their stunts at the free K-9s in Flight show or watch David ?Kachunga? stick his hand in the mouth of an alligator and then wrestle with him in a pond. A tiny first-grade girl named ?Alexis? thrilled the crowd at the final show with her bravery in sitting on the back of the alligator and petting him while Kachunga held its jaws tight with his hands.

James B. Miller, another board member, said both the alligator show and the dog show drew big crowds during the week.

?There was always a lot of people there,? Mr. Miller said. ?We wanted variety for the people.?

Mr. Diroff said the board hasn?t decided yet what entertainment it will seek for 2013. He said the fair gets requests all the time to sign some of the top country music singers in the country, but that?s not always possible. Many big performers cost $500,000 for one performance.

?A lot of people don?t understand that we can?t afford a Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney or Alan Jackson because they price themselves out of our markets,? he said. ?We have to pay our musical groups up front. It?s very costly.?

He said the fair?s entertainment committee will meet with Hunter Brucks, its promoter, this fall to discuss entertainment for next year.

?We?re going to look at the demographics, the 16 to 25 crowd,? Mr. Diroff said. ?They?re the ones that are willing to pay the price.?

One thing?s for sure: the Cowboy Kenny?s Steel Rodeo show won?t be returning. Attendance for the Wednesday night show in the grandstand was poor, so the fair will look at other attractions to fill that night, Mr. Diroff said.

About 5,000 fans watched the monster trucks perform Friday night and about 3,350 people watched the combine derby, he said.

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